TUESDAY, Feb. 11, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Medium-sized companies will have another year before they have to provide employees with health insurance or face tax penalties, the Obama administration announced Monday.
The mandate will not be enforced until Jan. 1, 2016, so some companies that have more than 50 employees will now have an extra year to meet that requirement, The New York Times reported. Businesses that have fewer than 50 employees don't have to provide insurance to all full-time employees and their families.
In granting more time for compliance, the federal government set up new deadlines for three sizes of companies. For companies with 100 or more employees, 70 percent of workers must have the option of coverage by 2015 and 95 percent should have that option after that, the Times reported. Businesses with 50 to 100 employees will have until 2016 to provide health insurance or face tax penalties. Small businesses with 50 employees or fewer will not be required to provide coverage at any point, the newspaper said.
This latest delay in implementation follows several attempts by the Obama administration in recent months to soften the blow of trying to conform with the tenets of the Affordable Care Act.
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